Below is a powerful response from a man with Down’s Syndrome to Ann Coulter who recently called President Barack Obama a “retard.” He is Special Olympics athlete and global messenger John Franklin Stephens. He is also the antidote to today’s hateful political discourse.
Dear Ann Coulter,
Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren’t dumb and you aren’t shallow. So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult?
I’m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public’s perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow. I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you. In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night.
I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.
Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he says, as everyone else races from one snarkey sound bite to the next.
Finally, I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.
Because, Ms. Coulter, that is who we are – and much, much more.
After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me. You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV.
I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash.
Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.
No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much.
Come join us someday at Special Olympics. See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged.
A friend you haven’t made yet,
John Franklin Stephens
Global Messenger
Special Olympics Virginia
SwM,
I email with enibob all the time. He’s has a job that keeps him pretty busy but I know he reads the blog. I’m pretty sure he was on the blog long before you and I showed up.
enochwisner wrote:
“All I was getting at is that, if one criticizes Coulter only, and because she’s Coulter, that one is no better than Coulter, herself.”
*****
Why can’t we criticize Coulter? We know her modus operandi. We know the hateful things she has said over the years. We know her and judge her by her past behavior. You judge others who dare to criticize her as no better than she is. How principled of you.
Smom,
Well if you want to talk solely about the composition of the troll contingent, that’s another issue altogether. 😀
Are we having a Jew Off? If so, I would like to enter Joan Rivers and Larry David as my female/male tag team and they’ll take on all comers!
Gene, It seems to me that white male trolls that hate Obama are overrepresented, or maybe they really are hispanic women pretending to be white male trolls. 😉
Elaine,
Thanks for the link to the Rolling Stone article that quotes Obame as calling Romney a bull_hitter. Very surprising. I agree with the label, I am just surprised that Obama used it on the record. I stand corrected tricksey.
Smom,
The Ron Paul edge? Perhaps an edge of those dissatisfied with government SOP under the locked down two party system, but just as many of them are not RP supporters and are simply disenfranchised voters with no discernible party affiliation whatsoever.
Smom,
The majority of posters never identify their ethnicity. None of the statistics WP/Askimet capture that data either. That the blog is a microcosm is without question, but any statements to the composition of it in re ethnic diversity I think are being made absent anything other than anecdotal data. In fact, the general color blindness of the forum is one of its stronger points. Most don’t care what someone’s skin color is but rather focus on the content of their arguments and assertions. That is in many ways an egalitarian ideal.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/greg_abbott_un_poll_watchers.php Texas AG threatens UN poll watchers. They need them from what I have observed.
Gene, Some times the blog has had a Ron Paul edge to it. He did not appeal to very diverse crowd. Quite the opposite was true.
Gene, I liked that lady Erica, but she left.
Geeba Geeba
1, October 25, 2012 at 1:30 pm
Coulter should never have called Obama a retard for a number of reasons. My issue is that there is way too much sensitivity and wussiness out there. How about the “sticks and stones” attitude making a resurgence?
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Geeba I’m put off by your remark. It demonstrates a huge disconnect in what is actually occurring in our Society. There is a concerted effort in this Country (and UK as well) to make an effective response to the harmful level of bullying that is occurring ….and being subtly taught to the kids of the next generation. The old adage of ‘sticks and stones’ is no longer serving a positive purpose, in fact, in a time when bullying in the schools has reached such massive proportions, and events such as Columbine etc are also increasing, the efforts are focusing on words (namecalling) as being most definitely harmful and how to bring that new enlightened understanding to more people to effect a lessening of this kind of harmful vulgarity in general.
The response made to the denigration by that young man was not only extraordinary, it was superb.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-new-brain/201010/sticks-and-stones-hurtful-words-damage-the-brain
idealist,
I don’t dwell on insults/barbs aimed at me on this blog. Have I appeared to hold that comment against you? I just brought it up because of the comment that you addressed to me on this post.
BTW, did I imply that you attacked me?
Was enoch coming to the defense of Coulter by suggesting that anyone who criticizes only Coulter on this post is no better than Coulter? Maybe you don’t construe it as his coming to her defense–but he certainly was impugning the character of any of us who criticized her on this post.
Gene, Most have gone……. I have not seen eniobob in a long time.
And your proof of this is what exactly, Smom?
Quite a few commentators have volunteered over the past that they are not white.
If you look at that poll, there’s also an economic and education imbalance showing.
“A key element of Romney’s advantage among all whites is that by 55 to 39 percent, more white voters say he, not Obama understands the economic problems people in this country are having. Among whites without college degrees, Romney is up 58 to 35 percent on this score, expanding what was a narrow gap just a few weeks ago. This advantage comes even as 44 percent of white voters say Romney, as president, would do more to favor the wealthy; 38 percent say he would do more to for the middle class.
Most non-college and college-educated whites alike see Obama as doing more to favor those in the middle, not the wealthy.”
I take it back, idealist. The blog is not a microcosm. It is not ethnically diverse.
Absent people volunteering their heritage/ethnicity/race no way to know if we are or are not.
idealist, A white southern male that is voting for Obama is a rarity.
idealist, Of course, he is losing white voters but especially white males. This blog is a microcosm.
Quote from WP Fix section today headlined Obama losing white voters……